19: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible

Number nineteen: the eighth prime number and the atomic number of potassium. There are not that many instances of the number in our everyday lives. In Canada, it holds some importance because nineteen is the age of majority, similar to age eighteen in the UK. In golf, the clubhouse bar is jokingly called “the 19thhole”. The strategy game Go is played on a 19 x 19 square board.
 
In the Bahá’í faith, the year is made up of nineteen months, which each contain nineteen days. In Islam, the Qur’an states there are nineteen angels guarding Hell. In the Qur’an, chapter nineteen, verse nineteen, the birth of Jesus to his mother Maryam (Mary) is announced. 
 
In the Bible, the number nineteen does not have its own meaning but combines the numbers ten and nine, which represent perfection and completeness. The number nineteen only appears in the Bible three times:

• Genesis 11:25 (KJV): And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
• Joshua 19:38 (KJV): And Iron, and Migdalel, Horem, and Bethanath, and Bethshemesh; nineteen cities with their villages.
• 2 Samuel 2:30 (KJV): And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asahel.

Plus, there are four instances of the term “nineteenth”:

• 1 Chronicles 24:16 (KJV): The nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel
• 1 Chronicles 25:26 (KJV): The nineteenth to Mallothi, he, his sons, and his brethren, were twelve:
• 2 Kings 25:8 (KJV): And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem
• Jeremiah 52:12 (KJV): Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,

 
Nahor, the man mentioned in Genesis 11:25, was the grandfather of Noah. He lived for 119 years AFTER the birth of Noah’s father Terah; therefore, he was of a considerable age at his death. 
 
The cities mentioned in Joshua 19:38 are the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali in the Promised Land. This was in the northernmost part of what would become Israel. It included the entire western side of the Sea of Galilee. Isaiah prophesiedthat the lands of Naphtali and Zebulon (Naphtali’s neighbour) would one day see a shining beacon in their lands:
 
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2, KJV)
 
This prophecy is eventually fulfilled in Matthew 4 during the life of Jesus Christ:
And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. (Matthew 4:13-16 KJV)
 
After the death of the Solomon, the Promised Land was split into two territories: Judah in the south, and the remaining ten tribes, including Naphtali, in the north, which would later become known as Israel. From this point until the Assyrian’s conquered the land in 722 BC, there were nineteen kings of Israel:

1. Jeroboam I
2. Nadab
3. Baasha
4. Elah
5. Zimri
6. Omri
7. Ahab
8. Ahaziah
9. Jehoram
10. Jehu
11. Jehoahaz
12. Jehoash
13. Jeroboam II
14. Zechariah
15. Shallum
16. Menahem
17. Pekahiah
18. Pekah
19. Hoshea

 
Just for fun, I have found examples of things that appear nineteen times in the Bible:

• Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned nineteen times
• The word “creature” appears nineteen times 
• The word “star” appears nineteen times in the New Testament